Joeys search for Queensland’s top teenagers

Queensland’s rising football stars will have the chance to impress in a two-day Joey’s Member Federation Identification Camp hosted at Football Queensland’s Meakin Park headquarters on April 6 and 7.

The under-17 camp has been planned with the purpose to observe the best players in their home environment while participating in high level sessions.

The sessions focus on Joeys Program principles and methods and are the first step in further talent identification for the 2018 AFC Under-17 Championship in September.

The camp will consist of three training sessions run over two days, with players also attending lessons in injury prevention, training review and match preparation.

Joeys Head Coach Trevor Morgan will lead the camp and cast his eye over his young charges with assistance by some of Queensland’s elite coaches.

“A great opportunity for Queensland based players and coaches,” Mr Morgan said.

“Technical Directors and Youth Coaches working with these players are invited to be directly involved in camp with the objective to better understand Talent ID, benchmarks internationally and practical sessions aligned with the FFA National Football Curriculum playing style.

“The camp will finish with an 11-versus-11 game and a post-match discussion with technical directors and coaches.”

Objectives of the state based camps are for players to experience a high level environment, with players having a better understanding of the requirements of National Youth Team football, and education aligned with the FFA National Football Curriculum.

Each camp is organised in collaboration with the member federations, who are responsible for selecting the players (25-30 each state) as well as organising the venue, equipment and additional staff to be in attendance.

Football Queensland head of High Performance and Coach Education Pat Hedges said the players were handpicked from among the top performers of National Premier Leagues Queensland (NPL) clubs.

“The players are selected from among NPL clubs, so they play at the highest level in the state and have gone through selection processes to get here,” he said. “They are among the first players to be assessed when it comes to the training camp selection process as they are already in the NTC system.

“Some players have had school commitments or injuries so have been forced to sit out from this training camp.

“The rest of these players are technical directors’ recommendations from NPL clubs and are players that have generally been on Football Queensland’s radar since early youth.”